MUGS Book
Reviews 
 Reviewed by:Peter M.
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Best iPhone Apps The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders
Published: 2009 Publisher: O'REILLY ISBN 978-0-596-80427-5 Format: 230 pages, paperback Author: Josh Clark This little book, which sells for $25 Canadian, holds quite a large collection of apps that can be downloaded from the iTunes Store for your iPhone. It is very useful, especially for new owners of the Iphone, who can use this book in order to be able to select a number of the best programs available at the time of the publication in 2009. It is a pleasure to browse through the 228 pages and be amazed to find out the many good apps that are increasingly available for your iPhone . As we are told there are more than 90,000 apps available for the iPhone. Some of these are free and most of them are quite reasonable, varying in price from 99 cents to a few dollars. Tens of thousands programs! Far too many for us mortals to choose from. Where would we start? The author has made a valuable contribution to select the best from them. They are categorized in sections such as “At Work”, “On the town”. “At Leisure” “For your Health” etc. This is very helpful indeed. Apple, through its iTunes’ newsletters and the magazine Macworld, also regularly tells us which updates are available and which programs are recommended. These sites are regularly updated, something only an annual new edition of this publication could hope to achieve and even then only to a limited extent. The author comprised a good little book, well worth the price. It would be a wonderful present to give somebody was just purchased an iPhone or, yes, treat ourselves! Reviewed by Peter M. August, 2010. |
 Reviewed by:Gordon S.
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The Digital Photography Companion Published: 2009 Publisher: O'REILLY ISBN-Print ISBN: 978-0-596-51766-3 ISBN 10: 0-596-51766-1 Ebook ISBN: 978-0-596-55829-1 ISBN 10: 0-596-55829-5 Format: 232 pages Author: Derrick Story Date of review: 2009-11-20 I had the good fortune to watch Derrick Storey’s podcast on improving picture-taking skills and was really looking forward to this book, part of which was the basis for the show. Derrick is the co-author of ‘iPhoto - the missing manual’ so those of you who like his writing style will find this book easy to read. This book is aimed at both beginner and intermediate photographers. In Chapter 1 he discusses the features of point & shoot and DSLR cameras to help you decide which format you would find most useful. He then explains what all those features mean. He suggests that you have your camera (and its manual) available so you can see where all the buttons and features are on your camera. In Chapter 2, you will learn how these features and buttons are used. Again use your own camera to try the techniques and see the results. I found this method helped me learn my way around my camera much faster. And this is where the digital camera format really shines; you don’t waste any film! At the end of this chapter you will have learned the lingo, know where features are on your camera and what the features are used for. Example, you use the aperture to control depth of field (or what is and isn’t in focus) and ISO settings which allow you to take pictures when the light is low. You are ready to start taking better pictures. Chapter 3 was my favorite. You are taken through ‘real life’ scenarios like shooting weddings, getting good shots of kids, landscapes and more. This is followed by advice on how to deal with special situations like sports, fireworks and low light shots and which features to use to solve problems. Here you will be introduced to some basic ‘rules’ which will make your pictures more engaging and interesting. One hint which I found useful was to get closer; after taking a picture, move in closer, then move in even closer. The closer you get, the more impact the photo will have. There are dozens of hints like this. In Chapter 4, you will learn how to send your images to the world through the Internet, make slide shows and manage your images so you can find them using applications like iPhoto, Photoshop Elements and Aperture among others. For you budding Ken Burns wanna bes how about making a movie of your photos using QuckTime Pro? He introduces several ‘advanced’ techniques to tempt you to expand your toolbox and progress to a higher level of proficiency. In Chapter 5 various approaches to printing your pictures are discussed. You will see the different approaches to display your images on hard copy and learn how to buy a printer to produce prints yourself if this is the route you wish to follow. The appendix contain several tables which provide quick reference for camera settings for a variety of situations. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get into digital photography or anyone who has just begun and wants to improve their knowledge of their camera and improve their technique. Advanced folks will find little new here. Available from Chapters $27.50, $18.15 online. Amazon Canada price $15.74. Reviewed by Gordon S. November, 2009. |
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My New Mac (Snow Leopard Edition) Published: 2009 Publisher: No Starch Press ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-164-0 Format: Paperback, 481 pages Author: Wallace Wang Date of review: 2009-11-20 This is an excellent book for the novice to intermediate Mac user. Everything in it is written for to help the novice become proficient at using his or her Mac. The book's layout is crisp and clear and the language is never too technical nor does it "dumb down" the material. Experienced Mac users will find many details that will enlighten them and yet novices will probably never feel overwhelmed by baffling technical language as the book helps them gain the knowledge and skills needed to become a proficient Mac user. The author, Wallace Wang, ironically comes from a career as a stand-up comedian, radio host, and Mac writer on the Internet. He believes that most people don't want to know how their computer works... They just want to know how to use it... and have fun doing so. The author focuses on what your Mac can do for you "as is". That is... right out of the box....without having to purchase anything extra (except perhaps a printer). Thus, there is no discussion of add-on programs such as iWork (Keynote, Pages, and Numbers). And while this is not a huge omission, those people who have purchased the Apple iWork suite of programs might be somewhat disappointed to find no mention of these. The Introduction to this book leads real novices through the very basic understanding of computer terms needed to get started using a Mac for the first time. Most people who are already familiar with the Mac will likely prefer to skip this portion of the book. Instead of chapter organization, the author has created "Projects" which lead the reader through a logical series of steps that start at the basics of turning on the computer and progresses through basic, intermediate and advanced techniques for using the Mac. The body of the book is grouped into Five parts: ⁃ Part 1: Basic Training ⁃ Part 2: Making Life Easier with Shortcuts ⁃ Part 3: Putting Your Macintosh to Work ⁃ Part 4: Touching the World Through the Internet ⁃ Part 5: Maintaining Your Macintosh Within each Part, a series of projects (a total of 54 in the book) are introduced and they do a comprehensive job of covering the main concepts and skills needed to take advantage of the power of the Mac. The author believes that most people learn better by working on projects with specific goals rather than simply reading through lengthy technical descriptions. There is an abundance of illustrations (black & white or gray scale --- no color illustrations) throughout the book. The illustrations and examples are all clear and concise, showing actual screen snapshots, making it easy for the reader to compare the information they see on their computer screen to that shown in the book. Part 1 - Basic Training - leads the user through turning the Mac on & off, using the mouse, Finder menus and Dock, manipulating windows and navigating through and manipulating folders in the Finder. It also covers how to make your Mac more energy efficient. All this sounds pretty basic, and it may be tempting to pass over without much attention to this part. But it is worthwhile to spend some time reading this section because the author presents details that even experienced users will profit from. (examples) Part 2 - Making Life Easier with Shortcuts - introduces Keyboard Shortcuts & Shortcut Menus, Drag & Drop features, Hot Corners, Searches &Side bars for finding things fast in OS X. Widgets and User Accounts as well as putting various forms of controls on some accounts (users) - especially helpful in managing computer use by young people. The Mac has always offered assistive features and the last part of this section covers the settings that will help visual and/or hearing impaired users as well as those with motor skills problems. Part 3 - Putting Your Mac to Work - covers the Notepad application, iCal, music & iTunes, movies & CDs and burning stuff to disks. The author leads the reader through a variety of methods of saving images on a Mac. From cameras, scanners, the Internet and from captured screen images. Organizing, editing and tagging photos is clearly outlined with plenty of examples and illustrations. Backing up files is mad easy with the Time Machine application and the book contains a concise description of how to set up and use this handy back up feature. And If you occasionally have to type words or phrases in a foreign language, then you will appreciate the section on typing foreign characters and accents. Part 4 - Touching the World Through the Internet - covers settings and connections needed to link to the world wide web (Internet). As well, the many features of Safari are covered in detail - especially the new Top Sites window and how to create web page clippings. Whether you enjoy listening or learning, you will appreciate the coverage of downloadable videos and podcasts and Internet radio. Of course, any discussion of using the Internet would be incomplete without delving into email. The author uses the Apple Mail program to develop techniques for creating, organizing, filtering and formatting email messages. There is also a brief discussion pertaining to using iChat for video chats over the Internet. I would have liked to see some discussion of the Skype program as an alternative to iChat, but that would have been outside the scope of the book. That is, to restrict content to that software which comes resident on the Mac at the time of purchase. Part 5 - Maintaining Your Mac - Man Mac users know very little about maintaining their computer. Perhaps that is not surprising considering that Macs have a proven track record of dependability. And there is truth to the understanding that if something isn't right with your Mac, simply turn it off and then on again and it will fix itself. But there are some things you can do that will minimize any problems that might occur. Knowing how to identify the important facts about your Mac such as the Operating System, processor and memory are an important first step. The reader is shown how to find out this information plus how to learn more about the other hardware inside the machine. Software updates, installing new software and uninstalling software are discussed. Password security, encrypting your data and creating a Firewall are important in ensuring that your private data stays private. The author does not go into extreme levels of technical jargon, but does illustrate how even the novice can achieve a satisfactory level of security by using the System Preference settings. The publishers have included a special project on the last page of this book. There you will find a paper model of an iMac which you can make. If you like origami, then you will enjoy this little project too. There were a couple of things about this book which I hope the author will deal with in the next edition. One was the lack of discussion of the Keychain, an important part of the Mac OS, and something which novices often have questions about. The other thing was the fact that individual System Preferences were explained at widely dispersed locations in the book. And the index did not list them under a single heading, making it a bit difficult to locate them all, especially if the user is unsure of their exact names. Reviewed by Tom C. November, 2009. |
 Reviewed by:Tom C.
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Learn Mac OS X Snow Leopard Thinking Person's Complete Guide to Mac OS X Publisher: Apress Published: 2009 ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4302-1946-0 ISBN 13 (electronic): 978-1-4302-1947-7 Author: Scott Meyers & Mike Lee Format: Paperback, 713 pages Date of Review: Nov. 2009 The authors of this new release are a former Apple sales specialist and a computer programmer. Together they have produced a book which will guide the novice through the steps needed to become a proficient Mac user... plus they also offer a fair amount of in-depth technical knowledge needed by advanced users who want to get behind the screen and look at some of the programming and development issues that make the Mac such an elegant and powerful machine. The book is organized into 26 chapters and divided into 9 Parts: 1. Getting to know Snow Leopard 2. Customizing and Administering Leopard 3. Communications and the Internet 4. Working with Applications 5. Getting to Know Darwin 6. Snow Leopard Networking 7. Snow Leopard Development and Scripting 8. Cross-Platform Solutions 9. Appendixes If you are a novice Mac user, then you will probably want to read the first five chapters completely, as they do an excellent job of covering the basics of the operating system and tweaking it to meet your specific needs. Insights into settings in System Preferences are covered particularly well in Chapter 4. The power of the Safari web browser is explained in Chapter 10 and that section is loaded with information which will help the user to understand and take advantage of features to get the most out of the Web. Chapters pertaining to Darwin, Networking and Development are really intended to provide fodder for the programmers and developers who read this book and will generally be far more in-depth than novice users will need. That's not a criticism of the book, but more a nod to the fact that not everyone who purchases Mac books is a beginner. While there are ample illustrations throughout the book, often using actual screen shots of windows and panes as they appear on your Mac, it is clear from some of the tables the authors are servicing the "need to know" criteria of the more technical Mac users who delight in viewing lengthy scripts and directory paths to fully understand the workings of the system. Helpful tips and notes abound throughout the book and offer shortcuts or insights into the operation of the system. Most Mac users who purchase a book like this will be using it as a reference book after they get their basic needs covered, picking it up off the desk when new problems are encountered. To that end, books like this need a good index to assist the user in finding the information fast. The index in this book is excellent. It is extensive and complete. The Appendixes found at the end of the book include: A. What's New in Snow Leopard? B. Installing and Setting Up Snow Leopard C. Our Favorite Applications Unless you have purchased a new Mac within a month or two of this review, you are probably upgrading from an earlier OS X to Snow Leopard. Appendix B walks you through the process, with illustrations of all the screens you will encounter accompanied by good explanations that will make the installation a confusion-free process. Appendix C lists over 60 of the authors' favorite applications under the headings of: • Internet • Text • Web Development and Social Networking • Video and Multimedia • Graphics • Office • Development and Database • Personal/Utility Not only are the application names listed, but also the cost, download sites, and notes about each. Many of the applications are free or inexpensive and offer convenience in accomplishing specific tasks. Special deal for purchasers of this book allows download of electronic version for only $10. Why would you pay an additional $10 when you already own the paper version? Because an eBook is capable of being stored on your laptop or desktop and is fully searchable, making this substantial book easier to carry with you. Plus it allows you to copy and paste code from book to application when following instructions on examples given in the book. This can be a real time saver! MUGS members are reminded that Apress offers a substantial MUGS discount.
(See the Members Only page for details.) Reviewed by Tom C. November, 2009. |
 Reviewed by:Ed F. and Ted C.
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Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual The book that should have been in the box Published: 2008 Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc./Pogue Press ISBN: 978-0-596-51936-0 [5/08] Format: Paperback, 536 pages Author: Barbara Brundage Reviewer: Ed F.: This is a 536 page manual with full color illustrations. It cannot be read in one sitting because you wouldn’t be able to retain all the information it contains. This book contains extensive and in depth explanations for all the many tools and file menus contained in Elements 6. Photoshop Elements 6 is a complex program with many features that most people may never use. It also has features like Straighten, Crop and Enhance that are also found in iPhoto. Nevertheless, each feature, from the very simple to the more difficult, get a thorough explanation. The book takes each of the many tasks that Elements can perform and guides you step by step to the final result. Many of these instructions have, in addition to the “step by step”, notes and tips in using the various tools involved. For the more complex subjects, I use this book in the following manner: Scan through the book to find a technique you wish to use. If after careful reading, you find difficulty to apply what you have read, supplement the instructions in the book with a quick use of Google. The Photoshop world has a language all to itself. Like most trades and professions, they use their own technical terms. With this book, you now have the right word to apply to a Google search. This will turn up many tutorials posted by individuals on the Internet. With so many to choose from, one is bound to give you that “Eureka” moment! Editing digital images is a technique that is learned from many sources. This manual will get you started on the right track. After you view the resources on the Internet and reference back to the manual, your editing efforts will start to come together. Don’t be afraid to duplicate an image and jump in and practice, practice and practice some more. One word of caution that is found on page 43: BRIDGE is Elements’ photo filing and organizer. It will seek out stored images on your Mac. Never try to look into iPhoto with BRIDGE; it could corrupt you iPhoto library file! To edit a photograph in Elements, open iPhoto, select the thumbnail you wish to edit, right click to get a drop down menu in which you should select Edit in External Editor: your selected image will open in Elements. Do your editing, click Save and a dialog box will appear: click Yes; then quit the Application (Command/Apple +Q on the keyboard) and your edited photograph will return to iPhoto. Ed F. December 2009 Reviewer: Ted C.: Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual is part of the Missing Manual series created by David Pogue, New York Times technology columnist and bestselling author. There are (according to this volume) approximately four dozen Missing Manuals, many of them written or co-authored by David Pogue. They cover various software programs, operating systems, and other computer-related topics. Modestly, this book asserts that "Missing Manuals are witty, superbly written guides to computer products that don't come with printed manuals (which is just about all of them)." Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual was not, however, written by Pogue himself; and it might have been better (wittier, and more superbly written!) if it had. Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual is an attractive volume, accurately printed in full colour on high-quality paper stock, and well bound, and lavishly illustrated. It makes the competing (to some extent) For Dummies series look rather shabby and slight and coarse by comparison -- as well it might, given that the list price is about fifty percent higher. Reviewing this massive book was a daunting and humbling and onerous chore. Not task; chore! I thought, when I first volunteered, that I might be the ideal person to review a book about Photoshop Elements. After all, I have been using and enjoying Adobe's graphic software programs for many years, starting with PhotoDeluxe, then Photoshop LE (Limited Edition), and ultimately Photoshop Elements. Each of these software programs was an improvement on its predecessor. As well, I have on occasion tackled Photoshop itself. In every instance I needed no so-called "missing manual." The programs were straightforward and intuitive. One learned by doing and practising, while occasionally resorting to online Help and/or the Internet. I never noticed the alleged absence of a manual. My first approach to this MUGS book review assignment was to read the book laboriously in its entirety, hoping that this would spark some ideas as to how to structure and word my review. Boring, and endless! This was neither an enjoyable process nor particularly instructive, since I was swamped with blocks of text. It took forever to wade through the volume; and having done so, I had no clear ideas on how then to advise MUGS members, nor how to avoid making offensive remarks about this handsome book that its publisher had kindly provided. At this point, the best points about the book were that it has a substantial index; and it has an Appendix A that purportedly and apparently deals with every Elements pull-down menu item. This in itself clearly is a highly-useful feature; though whether it justifies the purchase price is debatable. My next approach, I am ashamed to say, having fallen so short of review ideas, was to cast about on the Internet for a review that I could plagiarize (confident in my ability to reword it so as to disguise the theft)! Both approaches were utterly unsuccessful, so I eventually knuckled down and tackled the review head-on. Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual claims to give crystal-clear and jargon-free explanations of every feature of Photoshop Elements. I do not dispute this characterization (I saw no jargon, though sometimes I had to reread for clarity); but my primary impression as I emerged eventually from the far end of the reading process was that Barbara Brundage has an overly verbose and chatty style, with frequent digressions and a blizzard of confusing and distracting cross-references -- and far too many adjectives and adverbs. In my opinion, the book is not as clearly written and well-organized as is the typical book in the Dummies series. Dummies books tend to have a style that is matter of fact, and closer to "point form," and I find this more useful; whereas Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual drones on and on. After trudging through the Missing Manual, I intend as an alternative to keep my eye open for a Dummies book about Photoshop Elements. Trying to be fair, I then sat back and thought that another reasonable approach to this review would be to tackle the book from the viewpoint of how well did it work as a reference volume when tackling specific problems. So I posed some major hypothetical imaging problems that I have personally encountered. How does the software deal with a scanner for direct image acquisition? How does the software index one's photos? How does the software enable one to deal with moiré in a scanned image? These are all practical real-world problems. In each case, the book came up skimpy or unhelpful. Moiré is not even mentioned in the index, an extraordinary omission! So I cannot recommend this book, even though it is clearly a considerable accomplishment. Simply put, I don't need it; I suspect there are better alternatives; and I much prefer floundering about on the Internet in order to try to find answers, rather than dealing with this ponderous and verbose tome. Bottom line: I learned nothing from this book, even though I tried very hard to like it. And I will be returning the review volume, rather than keeping it for my bookshelf as I am entitled to do. This tells you something. Reviewed by Ted C. June 2009. |
 Reviewed by:Lyse R.Click on image above for a preview of this book |
How to be a Geek Goddess (Practical Advice for Using Computers with Smarts and Style) by Christina Tynan-Wook Trade paperback, 9 x 7 (23cm x 17cm) 315 pages + contents (brief & detailed), a note for men, intro and index $24.95 (U.S. & Canada) O'Reilly Press Reviewed by Lyse R. June 2009 What a great title! (from a woman’s perspective) As stated in the introduction, technology is there to serve you, so a woman should not be overwhelmed by it anymore than a man; it’s called “taking control”! It doesn’t mean that you can’t ask tech support for help but by reading this book you are empowered to troubleshoot first and maybe YOU will be able to fix it yourself! The book stresses a “can do” attitude. If men can do it, so can you! This book will familiarize you with the terminology which in turn will help you in accomplishing the tasks. The “How-tos” are PC oriented with a few tiny mentions once in a while of the “other” computer. I had no expectations regarding this book about PC vs Mac content so I was only slightly disappointed. The book takes you from buying a computer, finding a room for it in you home, setting it up, software choices, hardware choices, communication tools (e-mail, blogs, phone services), shopping on line, wi-fi, protection, geek parenting and even geek sex... The author at times uses feminine words like comparing software to shoes, purses and hats, guys-gals lingo as well as stereotypical roles but that doesn’t mean that men should not read this book. As the author’s husband writes in a foreword: the core idea of this book is that men and women are fundamentally different in how they think about and use technology. The author is the only woman to have written regular columns for both PC World and PC Magazine, which, if one wants to be stereotypical, is mostly read by men!!! The layout for me was confusing and all over the place. Different subjects are “boxed” on the pages throughout the book. For example: DEAR GEEK GODDESS box
TRY THIS box PHOTOS OF ITEMS box COMPUTER PAGES box OTHER SUBJECTS box Some of the boxes are so wordy that they interfere with the actual flow of the text: i.e. Page 117 starts 2/3 of the way down with 1 paragraph on SHOULD KIDS DRIVE? Pages 118 and 119 have a TRY THIS (box): find a long lost person, and then the 1st 3rd of page 120 has one more paragraph on the subject that was started on page 117. It’s like a magazine that has a plethora of ads! And there are many other examples. Some photos are only identified as “courtesy of ...” The reproduction of the COMPUTER pages are way too small to be useful; not being in color doesn’t help either. The colophon states that the font is Filosofia; I found it hard at times to decipher. Different typeface, font family as well as different sizes just added to the confusion. Geek in the context of this book refers more to a computer being an extension of oneself: every aspect of life revolves and is totally engulfed with the computer. Did I become a Geek Goddess? No, but I did learn some things. FYI: The author blogs at www.geekgirlfriends.com Reviewed by Lyse R. May 2009. |
 Reviewed by:Izzy S.Click on image above for a preview of this book |
Take Your Best Shot by Tim Grey
O'Reilly Press
2008 228 pages
The subtitle of this excellent book is "Tim Grey Tackles Your Digital Darkroom Questions". This tells the reader that the book is not written for the casual point and shoot photographer. The majority of the questions and answers deal with SLR cameras, Photoshop (not the Elements version) and professional photo problems. Nevertheless, I, as a point and shoot user and somewhat knowledgeable with SLR film cameras and Photoshop Elements 6, did find many topics which answered my concerns and expanded my knowledge. Chapter 1-Digital Fundamental, Chapter 2-Digital Camera and Tools, Chapter 9-Printing do deal with questions that are important for the point and shoot photographer. (There are 10 chapters in total) Chapter 1 clearly discusses and explains Resolution, DPI & PPI, Imaging Sensors, Increasing sensitivity (i.e. ISO settings) & Image File Size. Chapter 2 covers the differences between point and shoot vs SLR cameras; lenses; memory cards; and megapixel myths. Chapter 9 provides excellent and valuable information concerning printer types, types of ink, printing resolution, and types of paper. The other chapters are more directly related to the SLR photographer since they deal with RAW images, white balance, accurate colour management and the use of Photoshop layers, levels, filters, sharpening and the many adjustments of levels, colours, hue/saturation, brushes, cropping, colour cast, noise ,etc. Learning about the many methods by which your photos can be improved may well inspire the reader to purchase a SLR camera and investigate and learn how to use Photoshop. Tim Grey effectively uses a question and answer writing style. His answers, comments and honest approach result in an interesting, at times amusing and alway a detailed, but clear book. This is a very good reference book for photographers. Reviewed by Izzy S. January 2008. |
 Reviewed by:Peter M. |
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 Reviewed by:Fran W. |
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 Reviewed by:Izzy
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 Reviewed by:Ted C. |
Revolution in the Valley
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